Criss Cross: A Review

Criss Cross is a book by Lynne Rae Perkins, first published in 2005 by Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Criss Cross centers around five teenagers living in the small town of Seldem during the summer after their first year of high school. Debbie, Patty, Hector, Phil, and Lenny spend the long summer evenings listening to a radio show in Lenny's father's pickup truck. They learn lessons about themselves, their world, and each other as they experience new feelings, question their identities, and search for the meaning of life and love.

Criss Cross is the continuation of Debbie's story from the novel All Alone in the Universe. It introduces the characters of Hector, Phil, and Lenny.

This book was given to me by my grandmother about five years ago for my birthday. I was only ten at the time, and far more interested in dramatic novels about movie stars and fashion than strange books with no description on the jacket and what appeared to be a fuzzy drawing of a yard covered in fireflies on the cover. But oh, how wrong I was. From the first page to the last, I fell in love with this book and with each new read, I fall even harder.

Criss Cross is one of those rare books that doesn't appear to have any plotline at all, yet at the end of the book, each of the characters has grown so much that they are almost -though not completely- indistinguishable from the people at the beginning. It is written in third person, yet manages to be so very personal that the characters come alive.

The book is scattered throughout with little illustrations and photos by the author, giving life to those things difficult to describe with words. On one page, black and white photos of a hand forming the chords A and G over and over on a guitar. On another, a quaint illustration of the startling similiarity between the body of an old woman and a bottle of Pepto-Bismol.

Each character strikes a chord within our hearts, reminding us just a little of who we used to be. Debbie is a girl who wishes for an adventure and gets a little heartbreak. Lenny is a secret genius relegated to the technical track in high school because he doesn't like tests. The sheer realness of the situations and conversations will take your breath away, and the poignant observations of what it means to be alive will make you think. Almost every chapter has a new format, from narrative to dialogue to haiku (and yes, it works).

Not stuffy or strange, but beautiful and simple, Criss Cross is a book that explores the nuances of teenager-dom with poise and grace.